homestuckfateeditionfandomcom-20200214-history
062016 - Tracing
CCC: Kyle has been sitting against a wall, but slowly stands and rubs his eyes with the back of his hand. Looking utterly exhausted with red-rimmed eyes, he starts to walk towards the door. CTG: In comes Arty, looking a little more disheveled than when he left. He doesn't look bad, though, which may be surprising. CCC: Kyle looks up and practically scrambles backwards before realizing who walked in. "O-oh, uh, hey. T-there you are. H-how did, uh, everything go?" CTG: Arty is startled a bit, beginning so speak about what happened. "She, uh, is p-pretty nice...when she isn't, er...dealing w-with stuff..." CCC: "H-heh... I kind of, uh, f-figured. She reminds me, uh, a little of, uh..." His voice trails off as his eyes wander up to Arty's eyepatch. CTG: Arty is oblivious, looking down into Kyle's eyes. "Of what?" CCC: "...I, uh... I a-actually might need to, uh, update you on some s-stuff first." CTG: Arty leans against the wall. "What's g-going on?" CCC: "W-well, uh..." He takes a deep breath but still seems... flighty. "H-have you heard anything about, uh, g-god tiering, or the, uh, Scratch or whatever, or, uh... a-anything else?" CTG: "Uh, yeah...Aaisha did it, right...?" CTG: Arty doesn't like where this is heading. CCC: "Y-yeah... It's, uh, it's supposed to make you, uh, near immortal, b-but you have to, uh, die on your, uh, quest bed or something f-first. We, uh, went over some, uh, s-stuff in a memo." CTG: "...who?" CCC: "Uh, me and a few of the, uh, the trolls... They said s-something about how it was just, uh, people that were, uh, online, so I thought... S-sorry, I should have called you over or, uh, let you know, I..." He puts a hand to his forehead and seems to be attempting to control his breathing. "I h-haven't been thinking straight, s-sorry." CTG: Arty puts a hand on his shoulder. Unconsciously, Arty's hope powers begin to work on calming Kyle down. "Easy, buddy...it's going to be okay..." CCC: He shudders a bit but doesn't pull away. "I... No, you, don't, you don't know about..." He glances up at the eyepatch again. CTG: "...my eye?" CTG: Arty begins to lift his eyepatch, confused. CCC: "N-no! It's not-" He's struggling to control his breathing again, but appears to be thinking about something. After a few moments, he looks up again. "...C-can you... focus on something in the room, and, uh, n-not look away from it... just for a few minutes?" CTG: Arty has a bad feeling from this. "...without my eyepatch?" CCC: "...N-no." CTG: Arty does as Kyle asked, still confused. Arty locked his eye onto his unfinished cuckoo clock, studying his own work. Shoddy, he thought. CCC: Kyle pauses before taking Arty's hand and holding it, palm upwards. With his other hand, he slowly traces the letters "JACK" into Arty's palm. "...D-don't look away yet, but, uh, you... you got that, right?" CTG: Arty tenses. Oh shit. Just as he feared. "Y-yeah...I got it." CCC: "O-okay." He continues tracing letters into his palm, with the final message reading: "HE WANTED A DEAL. SAID NO. WASN'T HAPPY." He watches Arty carefully but doesn't let go of his hand yet. "...T-that's all." CTG: Arty nods slowly,.giving his hand a squeeze. With a thumb, he slowly traces, "WHAT TERMS?" CCC: He squeezes back and traces, "ULTIMATE POWER AND GAME CODE. WOULD HAVE TO HELP KILL ALL TROLLS." CTG: Arty tenses even more. He's trembling, a little, his hand shaky as he asks, "WHY?" CCC: He squeezes harder in an attempt to steady him. "DON'T KNOW." CTG: A look at Arty's face would tell one that he wasn't afraid. Well, of course he was. Arty was afraid of everything. But the words of Serios, Eribus, Lorrea, and others ran through his head...he saw Lorcan's face lighting up with a blush as she talked about Eribus. He remembered each troll that he'd met, each of the friends that he had made. And there was a man with the very real capability to make them all disappear.< CTG: Arty was not afraid. CTG: Arty was pissed. CCC: Kyle looks up at him curiously. "...S-so, uh... I mean, that's... yeah. H-he's... not, uh, happy. With, uh, with me, I mean." CTG: Arty grows red in the face. CTG: Visibly shaking with fury. CCC: Kyle is completely confused; it seems like he wasn't expecting this reaction. "A-Arty?" CTG: Arty stares straight ahead for a moment, silent as his beloved rocks. Then, he lets out a slow breath and seems to return to normal, for the most part. He bears a certain quality now, not unlike a coiled snake ready to strike. CTG: "I'm good now." His voice is deeper. His words are slower. CCC: Kyle's eyes widen as a slight blush spreads across his face. "I, uh... You're... you're sure?" CTG: Arty looks into Kyle's eyes. "Positive." CCC: Kyle seems dumbfounded and looks away after a few moments. "...Uh. Um. That's... good. Alright. Good." CTG: Arty traces on Kyle's arm again, his movements smooth and deliberate, gentle and measured. "PLAN?" CCC: "...Uh? Oh, uh." He breathes in and traces back, "NOTHING YET. CAN MAYBE FIX SOME OF IT AFTER." CTG: Arty continues his slow tracing, breathing in a sigh. "MEMOS SAFE?" CCC: "NO. NOTHING TYPED." CTG: "NO ONE TALK WITH ME?" Although there was a question mark, Arty seemed to already know the answer. CCC: He looks up, somewhat startled. "TALKING IMPORTANT. MAYBE AVOID SOME TOPICS?" CTG: "RISKY." CTG: "USE IT AGAINST US." CCC: "NOT TALKING MIGHT LOOK WORSE. HE'LL KNOW YOU KNOW." CTG: Arty is silent for a moment, beginning for form words with his large hands before stopping and reconsidering. Eventually, he nods. CCC: Kyle looks away and thinks for a moment before slowly tracing, "TIME UP IN A FEW WEEKS. NOT SAFE." He stares at the wall, unflinching. CTG: "SESSION END?" CCC: "NO." CCC: He looks pointedly up at Arty, no discernable expression on his face but definitely not the usual panic. CTG: Arty stares back. Unflinching, like a wall. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN?" CCC: "I TURNED HIM DOWN." He's being impressively indirect for someone so confident that they're evading spies. CTG: "TIME UP FOR WHAT?" Arty's impatience is growing. CCC: Kyle looks a bit exasperated but quickly traces, "ME. THIS SELF. NOT SAFE AROUND ME." CTG: Arty didn't understand. He couldn't comprehend. But he got it before he asked again. And it took all of Arty's self control not to explode. He visibly reigns himself in and slowly answers, "I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU." CCC: Kyle furrows his brow and clenches his jaw before answering. "AND I AM NOT LETTING HIM GET YOU." CTG: Arty takes him by the shoulders, staring hard into his eyes. Then he writes, "I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE." His eyes never leave Kyles. CCC: Kyle stares back fiercely for a short while but eventually slumps a bit. "LOSING ONE SELF IS BAD ENOUGH." CTG: "WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER." CCC: Kyle sighs as he slowly and reluctantly releases Arty's hand. He walks over to his spot against the wall and sits down again. CTG: Arty sits next to him, silent. Category:Arty Category:Kyle